Re-Upholstering

So FOREVER I have wanted to take an upholstery class, and this last year, 2013, I finally did!!!!

It was a lot of money, the price of the class, plus the tools, and any materials you use there, plus your fabric, it adds up fast!!! BUT, Nate and I thought now that we have a few pieces that need to be reupholstered, that we got really good deals on, the cost might even out after I know what I'm doing and can do it on my own. Sorry that was a long sentence. 

 

 So my class started Oct 10th, It was on Thursday nights and was a 3 hour class.  I had it once a week except a few times when the teacher was sick and on Thanksgiving.  So I learned very slowly, but it was SO MUCH FUN, and SO worth it.

 

So the above picture is the first chair, or chairs, we have two, that we bought to reupholster.  And my plan was to do one of them and this other mid-century modern chair that my husband found at a yard sale, GO NATE! So I asked my teacher what she thought, if I would be able to finish both and she quickly told me that I should do his first, it was easier, and then maybe I'd get to start on the other chair before the class was up.

 

 So I was a dork and thought we had a "before" picture of this chair but we didn't so this is what I've got.  This is it upside-down on the table with the outside back panel of the fabric open.  And believe me when I say this thing took too long to take apart.  The staples were pretty stuck in there and with the pattern it was hard to find a few...

This is the bottom and you can see how the padding was damaged from the springs

cutting through it. But luckily the springs were still good so I didn't have to replace them I just reinforced them and put burlap in between the new padding and the springs.

So my last class was Dec. 12th, and I had barely finished my chair, but the arms and legs still needed to be put on, so unfortunately it wasn't ready before we left town that sat. for the wedding and Christmas, but now its done! And yeah I didn't even get to the other chair, oh well. I'm hoping I can figure it out on my own with only a few calls to my upholstery teacher with questions. We'll see:)

 

So Voila! Here is the after and here it is with the old fabric on it to kind of give you an idea of what it might have looked like before. Use your imagination :)

 

 I used a brown and ivory herringbone pattern I found on sale at Joanne's, we originally wanted the gray and ivory, but the brown was $30 cheaper per yard and it looked very similar.  Also I had hoped to get a larger scale herringbone pattern, but this was the right price for us, and I'm happy with it.  Also everyone in my class really liked it too so that helped convince me it was okay to veer off the original plan I had. We also decided not to add the extra piping and skirt piece that the original chair had on the bottom front.

Sorry for my yellow looking pictures, totally still use my point and shoot camera here. SLR's are just things in my dreams.

And sorry the fabric doesn't photograph very well, but it's definitely an improvement from what we had before, not that the fabric before was horrible, just harder to work with, and most important, Nate LOVES his chair, and takes all the credit for it because he found it, and said we should buy it, even though I did all of the work, except he did help me put the legs back on.  Merry Christmas Honey!

Oh and on Saturday I spent all day rearranging/ cleaning things in our room so now it lives there, i'll have to put a pic. up later, right now I'm getting over the flu...ughhh! Be smart get a flu shot, SO much cheaper and less painful than having the flu. Especially while you are pregnant.